Completing Risk Monitoring and Control

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Risk monitoring and risk control happens throughout the project. It is not a solitary activity that is completed once and never revisited. The project manager and the project team must actively monitor risks, respond with the agreed actions, and scan the horizon for risks that have not been addressed. Risk monitoring and control is a recurring activity that requires input from all project participants. There are several tools available to implement risk monitoring and control as the following sections discuss.

Completing Risk Response Audits

A risk response audit examines the planned risk response, how well the planned actions work, and the effectiveness of the risk owner in implementing the risk response. The audits happen throughout the project to measure the effectiveness of mitigating, transferring, and avoiding risks. The risk response audit should measure the effectiveness of the decision and its impact on time and cost.

Completing Periodic Risk Reviews

Project risk should be on the agenda at every project team meeting. The periodic risk review is a regularly scheduled discussion throughout the project to ascertain the level of foreseeable risks, the success of risk responses in the project to date, and a review of pending risks. Based on circumstances within the project, risk rankings and prioritization may fluctuate. Changes to the project scope, team, or conditions may require qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Using Earned Value Analysis

Earned value analysis measures project performance. When project performance is waning, the project is likely missing targeted costs and schedule goals. The results of earned value analysis can signal that risks are happening within the project-or that new risks may be developing.

For example, a schedule performance index (SPI) of .93 means the project is off schedule by seven percent. A risk based on this value could mean that the project team is having difficulty completing the project work as planned. Additional work will continue to be late, the project will finish late, and quality may suffer as the team attempts to rush to complete assigned tasks.

Measuring Technical Performance

Throughout the project, the project team's technical competence with the technology being used in the project should increase. The level of technical achievement should be in proportion to the expected level of technical performance within the project. If the project team is not performing at a level of expected technical expertise, the project may suffer additional risks due to the discrepancy. Technical performance can be measured by the success of completing activities throughout the project or through project phases.

Completing Additional Risk Planning

Most likely, new risks will become evident during the project implementation. The project team, project manager, and key stakeholders that discover the risks should communicate the risk. The risk must then be acknowledged, documented, analyzed, and planned for. The project team must be encouraged to communicate the discovery of new risks.

On the Job 

Often, project team members don't want to share discovered risks with the project manager because the presence of a risk can be seen as bad news. The project manager must stress to the project team members that identified risks should be communicated so the risks can be planned for through avoidance, mitigation, transference, or even acceptance.

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